The Fyre Chronicles Chapter 13
The Fyre Chronicles Chapter 13 I didn’t get much sleep, as tired as I was, and when I got up, it was still red outside, although, it was probably always red outside. I looked at the clock with dark wooden arms hanging at the wall at the end of the twenty meter long dorm. It was only 5.38 AM, which was not any earlier than I had done with Santuric, but these time zone changes had thrown my rhythm off. There were no visible wires connected to the clock. Maybe it ran on some refined form of Fyre. Some of the other beds were already empty, and Sates next to me were standing with his head down in his trunk. “Great, you’re up!” he said. “Get in some clothes ‘cos the day begins soon.” At first this confused me. In the past months I had only had the clothes I had had on when it all began, and these had gotten pretty dirty and tattered over the months, but I now saw a trunk like Sates’ at the end of my bed. I opened and saw a neatly folded orange cloak made out of a thin material on top of clean regular clothes. I looked at Sates, who had already donned one of his cloaks. He looked at me and nodded, and I hurried to get something clean on and then the cloak. It was surprisingly light and completely airy so I didn’t get hot in it. “Come on” Sates said “I’ll explain on the way” We went out into the hallway and started walking out. “First of all, you need to learn to go about this place on your own. All the doors look the same for defensive purposes. The sooner you figure it out, the better.” Now that I could look at him better, I saw he was about the same age as me, in the middle 20’s. “These cloaks are made out of a substance called Vulkanadon, which is summoned and manipulated with the Fyre.” He stretched his arm out and the sleeve seemed to come alive and formed a sturdy dagger in Sates hand. “That is part of these studies we are having here, which you got to learn. Here we are.” The dagger molded into his sleeve again and we went in though a door on our left. We entered a very dark room with nothing on the walls, no windows or decoration. Instead, torches hung from various places on the wall and mats covered the floor. “This is the meditation room” Sates whispered “We come here every morning to focus our minds on the day ahead.” My night-vision started to kick in, and I now saw a few persons scattered around the room all facing the far wall. In the far end sat a person turned the other way. I squinted for a second and then recognized Santuric. “Yeah, he’s one of the guiders” Sates said when he saw I was looking at Santuric. “Yeah, it’s great he’s here but… I thought he was going away.” I said. “What do you mean?”, “Well, you see. When we arrived yesterday, the council said they had a ‘special request’ for him, so I assumed he was going to leave.” “Interesting…” Sates said and gazed in space for a moment. “But we don’t have time now, let’s discuss it during breakfast. While we found a spot to sit down, I looked towards Santuric to try and catch his eye, but to no avail. Soon the room began to fill up, and when everybody seemed to be inside I counted around 35 people. Nobody was talking, like this was a ritual they had done hundreds of times. Sates had his eyes closed too, so I used what Santuric had learned me, and started meditating. At first it was just like what I had done when I live at the hut with Santuric, but my mind and body soon filled with an extraordinary energy that seemed to revive me like I had been dead until now. I didn’t know how long this took, I just sat and let the energy fill me, but after what I later found out to be an hour, Sates pricked my shoulder and we rose and left along with everyone else. But Santuric was now gone. We walked along the hallway, probably to the mess hall. “You felt the energy?” Sates asked “Yeah, it was like I had been drained right till now” I answered. “That is the doing of the Fyreorb; I guess you saw it when you met with the council. Here we are, let’s get some grub!” We now entered a long room with big windows on the left showing the red-hot volcano outside. Wooden tables were stationed around the room and people were already beginning to find their places. Now in a well lit room I could see them properly. Most were older than me all with their special features and all wearing the orange Vulkanadon cloak. “This is where I usually sit” We sat at a little table and soon another person joined us. He was around 20, a bit lower than me, was quite pale and bald, had thick mustache and donned a black top hat. “This is Deff” Sates said “Deff, say hello.” We shook hands and nodded. “Sates, I’m just going to shove it down, I’ve got a lot to do” Deff said with a peculiarly deep voice and an accent I couldn’t quite place. He conjured a bowl of soup and gulped it down in one draught. He then fyre’d the bowl away and left the hall. “Yeah, that was Deff, I hang around with him. Well, that also shows you how we eat. I hope Santuric showed you how?” “Yeah, he did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have survived” I replied. “It’s excellent to keep your training fit too.” Sates said while he conjured a plate of French toast. I made a big pile of eggs and bacon, and then started to shove it down, because I was starving. “So, if I tell you my story, will you tell me yours?” Sates said after eating for a while. My mouth was full, so I just nodded. “Alright then” he said. See also The Fyre Chronicles San Ting